~ – Where the magic starts –

“The dead have taken command of the sea. They’re searching for a girl, a Pearl, and a Sparrow!”

What is this movie about?

A boy and a girl cross paths and with the help of Captain Jack Sparrow go in a quest to find the trident of Poseidon.

Why should you watch it?

First of all, you can forget the previous film. As it never existed, but keep in mind the first trilogy, as this movie is kind of soft reboot of that one and we might see some familiar faces on it, and also some similar situations by the way.

As we are used to in all Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the action never stops. With long action scenes that never seem to end, with all details under control and crossing paths with all the characters, this movie is a good way to entertain ourselves and feel melancholic about the first (and movie) of all of them. In here different paths find their way to the same solution: they needs to find the trident of Poseidon for different reasons, and that makes all different characters having to work together. Does that sound familiar?

Johnny Depp plays again Captain Jack Sparrow and while he makes us laugh sometimes, we are already used to his performance so it feels like there is nothing new in there, specially after five movies of the same. As the new comers are the youngsters who display a good chemistry trough all the movie and that gives a bit of fresh air although we cannot help ourselves to think about Orlando and Keira in the previous installments. Then we have a new villain Captain Salazar played by Javier Bardem who gives great and sometimes funny performance, specially when he goes like: “Spaaarrrow””, Sparroww”, that I cannot help myself but think of Robert De Niro in Cape Fear.

A good adventures movies that recovers the spirit of the first movies of the saga and keeps up with the humor that is also always present in these movies. Plus stay tuned for the post-credit scenes, a fan service scene that leaves doors open…

Did you know?

– The name of the fifth installment, “Dead Men Tell No Tales,” was previously mentioned by Cotton’s parrot in the first movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, and during a transition scene in the third movie, At World’s End.

– In several countries, the film is set to be released as Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge, including English-speaking countries.

– With a release six years after its predecessor, marks the largest gap between the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

– At two hours and nine minutes long, this has the shortest running time of all the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films.

– The first film of the franchise to not be filmed in the Caribbean.

– Christoph Waltz was originally cast in the role of Captain Brand, but dropped out due to other work commitments. Javier Bardem was then given the role, but the name was changed from Brand to Salazar to sound more Mediterranean to accompany Bardem’s Spanish descent.

– After failing to return for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Disney reached back out to Martin Klebba (Marty), Lee Arenberg (Pintel) and Mackenzie Crook (Raghetti) to return for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). Only Klebba was able to make it work within his schedule.

– The father of Captain Jack Sparrow was played by a Rolling Stone (Keith Richards) and in this film, the uncle of Captain Jack Sparrow is played by a Beatle (Paul McCartney).

– The Jack Sparrow’s uncle tells Jack a joke : the same joke told by Al Pacino to Johnny Depp during ” Donnie Brasco ” shooting . ” A skeleton walks into a bar , orders a mop and a beer … ”

– The five finalists for the female lead were Lucy Boynton, Gabriella Wilde, Jenna Thiam, Kaya Scodelario, and Alexandra Dowling. After Brenton Thwaites was cast, the studio did chemistry tests with Thwaites and the actresses to see who best fit the role. Kaya Scodelario was eventually cast. (Variety)

The crew of a colony ship, bound for a remote planet, discover an uncharted paradise with a threat beyond their imagination, and must attempt a harrowing escape.

Why should you watch it?

It’s the first time that we get to see a proper Alien in an Alien movie for 20 years. So curiosity, after watching the trailer, had us attracted to watch this movie; and also the need to get the unsolved questions raised in Prometheus.

The action takes place 10 years after the previous movies and where we see the magic equation from the old alien movies: a crew going somewhere and receiving an alert message, so they go to that planet to investigate and they find there one or two surprises. While this might have worked in the first two alien movies (and masterpieces), here there is something missing. The story goes too fast and there isn’t any surprises at all, because while we are watching the movie, we are guessing what is going to happen. And that is really a pity.

We do indeed get many answers, but maybe they are not what we were expecting (not what we wanted) and the feeling that you have been waiting almost 40 years for this, gives you a strange feeling. Plus, the movie leaves many open doors and raises other kind of questions that we hope will be patched up in the following movie, which by the way you will be left wondering what is going to happen: how they are going to connect this one to the original one.

Another problem that I see is that there are too many actors, there are like 15 crew members, which we see suffering one after another. And believe me when I say this is the first Alien movie were I laughed at the fate of some of them, because some situations are a bit ridiculous, pardon me. Maybe with fewer people the repeating idea would have worked differently adn even better. Despite that at some point we hear the Alien and the Prometheus theme, we are left a bit cold or feeling nothing like we felt 40 years ago.

Although the film shines more light to the Alien story than Prometheus did, it feels like something is missing, which is ironical as it provides many answers, which we have been waiting for since the original Alien movie. It feels just like another action movie, missing the magic of the two original ones (please pretend that Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection never existed).

Did you know?

– A Covenant is an agreement or a promise. In biblical terms, one of the Covenants between God and humanity was a promise by God to never again wipe clean the Earth as he has done in the flood. Another was the giving of the law to Moses. It was an agreement that the Israelites would follow God’s commandments, and God would justly judge those who broke them. It is possible that the “covenant” in this title refers to an agreement between the Engineers and humanity, or perhaps that the Engineers have been or planned to wipe out other species via a “flood” of their own creation.

– The name ‘Alien: Paradise Lost’ was used to avoid confusion that surmounted due to dissociation with ‘Prometheus’ from the ‘Alien’ franchise. The film was later retitled to ‘Alien: Covenant.’

– The new planet, which is assumed to be the home of the engineers, is being referred to as a paradise and could be the home of the gods who created humanity.

– On November 27, 2015, Ridley Scott announced that this will be the second (following Prometheus (2012)) in a new Alien Trilogy which will take place closer to and lead up to the original film.

– First Alien film to be released after the death of H R Giger. Giger inadvertently designed the original Alien looks and environments in his “Necronomicon” book, which led to Ridley Scott hiring him as art director for the film (and series). Giger essentially gave birth to the entire Alien look that we all know now.

– At one stage, Katherine Waterston’s character Daniels says “I got you, you son of a bitch.” Ellen Ripley uses these words at the end of the original Alien film.

– There is a scene where you can see a toy bird drinking water, in the original Alien (1979) in the opening scene there is a toy bird drinking water in the background.

Like this:

Set to the backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ continues the team’s adventures as they unravel the mystery of Peter Quill’s true parentage.

Why should you watch it?

Because Guardians of the Galaxy was a fresh story that we knew nothing about (unless you are a Marvel fan, the you knew almost everything). Now we know these characters and the story continuous keeping the same style of the first movie, but with more laughs than ever.

We find our heroes together some time after the first movie, doing their businesses, and for this movie the main plot it’s Star-Lords origins, which of course they might not be as they look like. While his background story is interesting, there is a lack of magic like in the first movie, of course it was something new back then and now we have the same. But the movie lacks the kind of action and story that the first had. Plus, this one is really a stand alone movie, not connected at all with the MCU (for the moment). If the movie wasn’t there, maybe we wouldn’t miss anything of the whole story arcs.

Yes, you cannot stop laughing, because let’s be clear, more than an action film it looks like a comedy one. Specially with the pair that Racoon and Groot are, once again they steal the show, specially baby Groot. But it’s not only Star-Lords parentage that we learn about, we also learn the other backgrounds, which is good, as there were many questions unanswered in the first movie and in this one we get them.

As always, the movie is pure a visual effect, which nowadays we are really used to watch, but maybe one of the best scenes is the opening sequence. Then, another detail that this movie has as its predecessor it’s the music, that 80s style is really present through the whole movie, and personally one of my favourite ones is during the rolling of the credits, so stay tuned. And don’t forget to stay seated until the very end of the movie, as there are not one, nor, two, nor three, nor four, but five post-credit scenes. Yes, a bit of an overload, but there are a couple that looks really interesting..

Remember: #WeAreGroot

Did you know?

– The film’s subtitle is a nod to Star-Lord’s Awesome Mixtape Vol. 1 tape from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

– James Gunn clearly stated that this sequel won’t set up Avengers: Infinity War.

– In an interview, James Gunn said that most of the questions will be answered in this film that remained unanswered in the first.

– Prop master Russell Bobbitt had difficulty finding the cassette decks used in the first film and all of the Sony Walkman headphones they found were broken. Bobbitt contacted Sony to see if they had any available for filming, which they did not, so he eventually created six from scratch.

– This sequel was announced a week before the release of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) at San Diego Comic-Con 2014.

– As Groot only communicates with the phrase “I am Groot” in different inflections, James Gunn created a “Groot Version” of the script for himself and Vin Diesel, which contains each of Groot’s lines in English.

– Prop master Russell Bobbitt created a 1:1 scale model of the 10-inch (25 cm) Baby Groot for filming to use as a lighting reference, and sometimes puppeteered against the actors during the filming.

– Dave Bautista’s Drax makeup took only 90 minutes to apply, down from four hours for the first film. However, he would have to sit in a sauna at the end of the day to get the makeup off.

– According to the VFXperts, Ego’s planet VFX is composed of a trillion polygons, and is considered to be the biggest visual effect ever made.

– After many rumors, Karen Gillan reprised her role as Nebula without shaving her head.

– James Gunn went on record in an interview that he wants to give Nebula her own spin-off movie.

– The teaser poster is a parody of the cover for The Ramones’ album Rocket to Russia.

– This will be the first film shot on RED’s WEAPON 8K digital camera. It is the digital equivalent to VistaVision, a higher definition 35mm format developed in the 1950s.

– James Gunn said previously that Stan Lee’s cameo in this film is one of the four Lee cameos filmed in one day. In addition to this film, Gunn directed two other cameos, one of them was Doctor Strange, and another one that he did not specify which.

– In the comics, Mantis is human, and acquired her skills by living with the Kree. James Gunn chose to make her an alien in the film because he wanted Peter Quill to be the only one of the main characters to come from Earth.

– Yondu has a larger head fin in the film, bringing the character’s look closer to his comic counterpart.